Data center networks can have a large number of switches and traffic volume, which presents a unique challenge of debugging and troubleshooting. For example, if a packet is dropped by a series of switches, it can be difficult to determine where and why the packet was dropped. Traditional debugging tools, such as SPAN (Switched Port Analyzer) and ERSPAN (Encapsulated Remote Switched Port Analyzer) can be used to debug dropped packets, but these tools fail to provide any insight into the states of ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuits) which are often the root causes of the problem. The MICROSOFT EVERFLOW platform (which is based on ERSPAN) can be used to debug anomalies in TCP flows and packet drops, but requires an external server and significant fabric bandwidth while again failing to provide any insight into ASIC states.